Growing lavender can bring up to 200% profitability.
There are 244 lavender fields in Ukraine, but there are no official statistics on this market - the culture is too niche to get into government reports. However, the lavender business is actively developing: investments start from $10,000 per hectare, payback occurs in 2-3 years, and profitability in the fifth year can reach 200%.
How much does it cost to start a lavender business in Ukraine
To start and establish a lavender plantation, you will need from $10,000 per hectare. The lion's share of these funds goes to the purchase of seedlings and soil preparation. If the business plan includes the purchase of processing (distillation) equipment, the initial investment will increase by another $30,000-50,000.
The cost of growing lavender is distributed as follows:
irrigation system - 40%;
fertilizers - 31%;
salaries - 14%;
fuel - 6%;
other expenses - 9%.
When a lavender field starts to bring in profit
You won't be able to quickly recoup your investment in this business - for the first 1-2 years, lavender forms a bush and actually does not bring in income. The dynamics of profitability looks like this:
2-3rd year - reaching a stable commercial harvest;
3rd year - profitability reaches about 36%;
5th year - profitability can soar to 200%.
With proper care, lavender can bear fruit for up to 25 years, after which the yield drops and a new investment cycle is required.
How much can you earn from a hectare of lavender in Ukraine
The entire economy of the lavender business is built around processing - it is it that generates the maximum added value. Key indicators per hectare:
5-7 tons of green lavender mass;
120-147 liters of essential oil (subject to effective irrigation);
revenue from the sale of oil - about 158,000-160,000 hryvnias per season.
For comparison: the sale of simply dry or green lavender brings only tens of thousands of hryvnias, which does not cover the potential of the field.
Which segments of the lavender business are the most profitable
The Ukrainian lavender market is clearly divided into several separate areas:
dry lavender - wholesale 700-1,400 hryvnias per kilogram;
essential oil - 300-2,700 hryvnias per liter (on the Ukrainian wholesale market);
cosmetics and aromatherapy - a 10-30 ml bottle in retail can cost up to 900 hryvnias;
seedlings - from 25-75 hryvnias per piece (two-year-old bushes cost about 150 hryvnias).
A separate item of income for farmers is agrotourism. Entrance to a lavender field for a photo shoot costs visitors 200-400 hryvnias, but in the overall structure of business income it brings only about 10% of the profit.
How many lavender fields are there in Ukraine
There are 244 lavender fields in Ukraine, but there are no official market statistics - it does not have a separate category in the agricultural sector. Market scale:
the largest field is in the village of Vasylivka, Odessa region (55 hectares);
Chernivtsi region - a field of 16 hectares;
Transcarpathia - 10 hectares;
the rest of the plantations are small fields of 1-3 hectares.
The total area of lavender in Ukraine is only 300-800 hectares. For comparison: sunflower occupies 5.6 million hectares. The largest number of plantations is concentrated in Vinnytsia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv and Dnipropetrovsk regions. Today, the lavender business in Ukraine resembles craft winemaking or coffee - the raw materials themselves are inexpensive, and the real margin is born in processing, brand creation and a beautiful story around the product.
Source: dengi.ua
